Missions

The first OSS Operational Group (OG) unit dedicated to missions behind the lines in Italy was ready in the Spring of 1943. However, the OSS OGs played only a marginal role in the landings at Sicily and Salerno. They demonstrated their value for the first time during the landing at Anzio in January 1944 when they provided intelligence to the Allied Command about the German counterattack which gave the Allies time to organize and to resist on the beach-head.OSS support activities in Italy at that time proved important because until June 1944 the Italian front was the only one where OSS agents could actually operate behind the enemy lines.

One of the OSS’ most important tasks was to cut vital German supply lines that reinforced the Gustav and later the Gothic Line. Because the railway that constituted the main German supply line was riddled with tunnels that ran through the mountainous coast between Genova and Livorno, Army Air Force bombings were not an effective way to disrupt the lines. Therefore, one of the OSS missions was to blow a tunnel, 15 miles northwest of La Spezia harbor, effectively cutting the important railway line which ran from north to south along the western shore. This was the objective of the ill-fated “Ginny Mission.”

The “Ginny Mission” was one of the first to use an entire OG unit of 15 agents. After an initial aborted attempt, a second unit left Bastia (Corsica) on March 22 and landed with rubber boats. Shortly after landing, all members of the unit were captured by an enemy patrol. Although they were all properly dressed in US Army uniform and should have been considered and treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, the entire unit was secretly executed by the Nazis a few days following their capture.

Wehrmacht General Dostler, in charge of the Italian Territory and who ordered the execution of the 15 agents, was later tried in Rome as a “war criminal” after Germany’s surrender and sentenced to death in December of 1945. His case created the legal precedent for the Nuremberg trials.

In 1944, the OSS started supporting the Resistance with money, arms, and other materials via air drops in the center and northern parts of Italy. The OSS also sent agents to participate in special missions with the partisans and 4,280 Allied air operations were carried out behind the lines during the course of the war.

As the military operations on the Gustav Line stayed blocked for several months, the OSS activity in collaboration with the Resistance became crucial. The OSS collected and transmitted information and carried out sabotage operations. As a consequence, the difference between the activities of the two most important groups (the SI/Italy, responsible for general intelligence and the OSS/5th Army Detachment, responsible for tactical support) became blurred, as both carried out long and short range missions all over the German-occupied territory.

In the Summer of 1944, following the successful battle of Cassino, the Italian campaign slowed and became secondary to the invasion of France. The Allied forces in Italy were reorganized and diminished, keeping the Italian Front open and allowing German divisions to remain in place rather than being deployed to defend other northern European fronts. This strategy intensified the OSS and partisan military operations behind the lines and the role of the United States in Italy became predominant.